Ka'a Nui (The Big Van Project)

Mele Kalikimaka 2025 (Choose Pidgin ,  English  or photo  version to read) Hawai'i Pidgin version (English is below) Mele Kalikimaka! So glad you wen go scan da QR code fo find us. No can believe 2025 stay pau already! Dis year was so big, we had to go digital fo tell you guys da whole mo’olelo (story). Grab one coffee or one POG, and check out our monthly highlights: January:  Nature wen start da year wit' one bang—da eruption at Halema'uma'u was still going! John hit 35 years at UH Hilo, and Janet got fo talk story wit' da Obamas at Kilauea Lodge—ho, such classy people! One guy wen go "bang" John’s car from behind, but lucky ting nobody wen get hurt. We wen go "green" wit' one new electric car, a Kia Niro. Hardest part of da month was saying aloha to our 16-year-old pet "Kitten." She was da best. February & March:  Janet hit her 35-year mark at da Lodge! Den in March, we wen go  Keauhou Bird Conservation Center  fo see da...

Day fourty three of van life, November 10th, 2025. Relive for last few days November six November six, morning hike November six, sunset hike November seventh   November eighth November ninth Nothing for today, November tenth. 10,500 miles, 43 days, we are now at our hotel before morning lift off tomorrow at sparrows fart, wee morning early. Hope TSA and FAA are working, but with current political weather, you just never know.  Wish us luck. It has been about five days since our last posting, busy times and lots going on.  Let's recap as I sit at a little bar in our hotel ordering from a grumpy waiter. November six, we wake up in Lordsburg, ok, we slept at a flying J's parking lot with other happy campers. A full moon is epic, but the campsite works. We drive thru Bowie Arizona, a fun dirt road that is pretty cool as we head to one of the coolest parks yet. Edventually, (I made up that word), we get to Chiricahua national monument.  Apparently it is the f...

Day thirty eight of van life, November 5th, 2025 John's relive of white sands park And we are off

Day thirty seven of van life, November 4th, 2025. Janet's relive Guadalupe park trail relive Heading from big bend to Guadalupe national park. A park with no roads.  Only hiking. We may continue onto white sands for exploring and camping. Last night we wanted to camp at the water crossing, but I didn't get a good vibe, so we drove to an overlook for the night.  Amazing view, killer sunrise.   Up at 6am, but it might be 5 or 7am with time zones and season changing of the times.   Two phones, car and a GPS, two very different time showing.  Alas, we are going with the Tru and tried Hawaiian time. Sunrise super epic, could watch this sunrise all day every day.  I get up and shower in the parking lot with hot water, coffee warms me up and we roll out of Big bend national park, so glad we made the choice to make this visite. We head to Guadalupe national park nice place, windy and we do a short trail before rolling off to El Paso Texas for a Costco gas...

Day thirty six of van life, November 3rd, 2025 Janet's relive Our morning hike near the campsite We depart big bend Rio grande campsite and head across the park stopping along the way.  We head to Santa Elena canyon trail, and we both vote it as best yet. I nice walk up the canyon, I am able to cross the river and touch Mexico.  We love how it goes from very hot and dry to like walking into a fridge.  

Day thirty five of van life, November 2nd, 2025. Janet's relive

Day thirty four of van life, November 1st, 2025. Janet's relive   Happy November 1st!  26 days till turkey day and 54 days to Christmas 🎄 🎁. We survived Halloween!  Nice campsite, we wake up to a nice morning and a cup of coffee to go. Leaving the camp we enter the world of Bucee's rest stop, home of beaver created fashions and food.  Ohh and they have gas.  We get a few things, a rolled burrito breakfast sandwich, they call a taco 🌮, and a few miscellaneous items, some to be considered as junk food.  Bathrooms are super clean and staff is friendly to a t.  We roll onto Austin for a jipped lube, I mean jiffy lube privately owned and spendy. I worry as they cannot seem to figure out the latch on the hood and it takes three people to work it out. Not leaving much confidence with me. Also, did I mention expensive and no coupons accepted.  So a 115 dollar oil change that cost 20 bucks in parts. Alas it is only money. We head over the bridge into Au...

Day thirty three of van life, October 31, 2025. Morning sunrise. Precious night sunset provided by oil companies burning off chemicals into the night air. Happy Halloween 🎃 👻 🎃  Janet's spooktaquilar relive video of today's drive We had a long night and now rank this as the worst spot to camp on the planet, maybe the solar system, after driving thru Texas the state sorta sucks as well. People drive super rudely and offensively just to demonstrate being ass hats, maybe that's why it is a maga state. Morning reflections of a long night. The Pacific gulp This blogger tool needs help post four pics and it burps... We head on out of town to Galveston, before we get stuck here. Oil rig in progress of something Well, the rocky raccoon 🦝 band, and his pose did two valid attempts to infiltrate our defenses. Luckily, we were ready both times. Once awake wonderin...

Day thirty two of van life, October 30, 2025. Janet's relive Ensconed at our campground for the night. It is a strange and bizarre place.  Walking the Gulf of Mexico Beach, my feet are wet, but feel like funcky water. Mosquitos are epic and the effing raccoons tried to break into our van till I started it and shined our lights. About six of the little fuck cakes.  Like I said, mosquitos are prevalent and hungry.  They are now well fed. We plan tomorrow out and hope to drive about an hour and half thru to port Bolivar to catch the ferry to Galveston. We shall see. But back to today up early we head into New Orleans to find parking and coffee. The ride is cool, but I pucker up driving over the super tall bridges going like 75mph.  A combo that can make anyone nervous.  Then we arrived into the French quarter for coffee and pasties.  We find parking and walk to cafe du monde for pastries and a hot chocolate, I get a hickory coffee as well to go, all superb....

Day thirtyone of van life 3.0, October 29th, 2025. Janet most epic relive video Our New Orleans walk thru town Our camp site last night was primo. A delicious mushroom rissoto and beef broccoli, paired with a nice Belgium beer!  On the lake, next to bathrooms and hot strong showers. Home of one of the worlds best Frisbee golf courses and white lightning lane (whiskey from progabition times). We are off to New Orleans for the night. The campground we are looking at is empty for the night, and that is not very promising.  Gusty winds or crazy people ahead stay tuned. Yes on gusty winds, very gusty but a great drive in our tall van.  People, well "NO" or neholins are, well different, alligators can be more friendly than these people.  Alas most everyone we have meet is super cool and wonderfully nice people.  From nice lady at Costco checking our tire pressure to the dude who worked there who had me drive over to his shop to check all five tires (checking spare). L...

Day thirty of van life 3.0, October 28th, 2025. Janet's relive for today's short drive. For Albert! Lots of these. This one looks like an armadillo caught in paint and pooping, but nice art.   Nice place, but every building is under reconstruction. Only one donut shop found. We woke up, we drove, we got gas, drove, then stopped to do laundry laundry. Laundry is, well laundry. Only three working out of entire row of dryers Don't ask about the washers....  But hey, mo Betta than washing at the river like I used to have to do, no sope these days. Now off to campground in Claiborne.   Supposed to have some more rain in the weather queued for us. After that, should be smooth sailing.  Looking forward to dinner tonight and a nice beer.  Fire... Maybe not... Mushroom 🍄 rissoto and beef broccoli. Yum.. Currently sitting at the lake, Jeannie and Robert have been here before  Super nice place.  I hope to...

Day twenty-nine of van life 3.0, October 27th, 2025. We head west now, as we park Ka'a Nui  Showers are our friend! But camping was warm, might be due to the nuclear powerplant down the road. Actually was a nice evening, we used our awning over the van side door and all worked great. First time using using in real life.  Footstool really helped. I like icecream... Progress happens, we woke up in Tennessee, drove thru Georgia for five minutes, then back into Tennessee for 22 minutes into Alabama.  Our stop was at the botanical garden.  Nice garden with Mamma Zelda.  This was fun as her hair is part of the maze and you need to find ten seeds in her hair maze.  Good fun and yes we found all ten seeds. Now in Batesville, Mississippi, with gas at $2.089 per gallon.  I wish we could fill the vans 25 gallon water tank with this gas 

Up early at domes head, day rise had to es of people showing up for sunrise. Janet's realive Morning Same sign, different side Not your not about this evacuation sign. Not sure if there would be much hope if this went bad.  N

Day twenty-seven van life 3.0, October 25th, 2025. We wake up at the domein the great smokey mountains. Janet super cool relive of the day How did I skip day twenty seven, or October 25th..? An amazing evening, we are parked at the top of the dome parking lot. I think we visited here in our family 2006 trip. We stay the night and have other campers not far away in vans. We return to the knife edge of Occams razor on the boarder of Tennessee and north carolina.  

Day twenty-six of van life 3.0, October 24th, 2025. Scurvy is starting to set in, the crew looks to the horizon, ahh, that was capt blog, we are doing great, van is heated, a fridge and a freezer are delightful and meals plentyful. We left Dublin Virginia after getting up at 6am, and heading to the lake for sunrise 🌄.  Birds and mist make for anze full morning. 

Day twenty-five of van life 3.0, October 23rd, 2025 Janet's relive of our drive today . We are off to the great smokey mountains, as we chase the warmth heading south.  We hope, as we have a frost alert for the morning... A brutally cold morning, but off we go.  We leave Crozet Virginia for the great smokey mountains.  Alas, we discover the blue ridge parkway and drive that.  What a bonus ride.  This road is perfect for bikes, motorized that is.  We stop and head into town for fueling up and come back for the scenic 35mph drive, occasionally 45mph, lol. Not to smokey mountains, but to Dublin Virginia.  Awesome drive and great weather.  We are keeping an eye on some bad weather from the west as well as huricanne from the south..

Day twenty-four of van life 3.0, October 22nd, 2025 We hike springs falls trail nice and part of the Appalachian trail system. Relive from the hike

Day twenty-three of van life 3.0, October 21th, 2025. https://www.relive.com/view/vevWzN4Koyq Our hike from the Rose river falls.  We give the falls a three, short not much water.  Check out the guy fly fishing. Up with the deer We leave the park to check out Loray caves, and what a great recommendation Let's see if copy and post works any better. Day twenty-three of van life 3.0, October 21th, 2025. https://www.relive.com/view/vevWzN4Koyq Our hike from the Rose river falls.  We give the falls a three, short not much water.  Check out the guy fly fishing. Up with the deer We leave the park to check out Luray caverns, and what a great recommendation by Jeff. Kinda magical  It's a big place. It's about a mile of walking underground. Reflections Hard to tell were one starts, and the other ends Can't get enough of the reflections  Or the warm smiles Enough already, but so cool.. Happy campers. Or spelunker's  The wishing well, has raised over ...